Les enfants des autres

To whoever that thinks the movie is a romcom it only means one thing, is that you did not get the movie.

I studied cinema, and the movie is more dramatic than romcom!

The movie is quite simple but with deep meanings. It's main focus is parenting. Is it a need to be a parent? Should we all become parents? Where does the need and/ or the feeling comes from?

Virginie Efira (Rachel) performance is great. Rochdy Zem (Ali) performance is just fine. The kid (Leila) performance is outstanding.

I being a pansexuel cis-man, only daily basis I feel like Rachel. I worked with kids and I loved it. When I met the child of a friends of mine and we get along, it makes me happy.

I know I want kids, I want them. Why? I can't answer to this question. But could we all have kids?

It might be easier for a woman to get a child without having a partner, not the case for men. And adoption is a very complicated procedure in most of the countries discriminating those who desire to be single parents.

Terribly heartfelt and poignant at expressing what it's like to want something that you cannot have. It goes on one step further to tell what it's like when everyone seems to be taking that for granted and seems to be getting that one thing easy.

Embodied through Virginie's character, the metaphor of not having a child symbolises much more in our daily lives, a longing for the mundane things that some of us just cannot have. The film leaves and open slate for us to fill with what those mundane things are that we see others get so easily that we seem to not be able to get.

The movie also tells us about how cyclical this process is and even how sometimes we never get those things but just stay watching what we want drift away as we look on sadly.

For a lot of people, women not being able to get pregnant falls into the category of first world problems. And I'll admit that I haven't given much thought to that scenario, having the luxury of 1.) being a man and 2.) having a wife who was able to easily conceive exactly when we decided to have children. So for someone like me, "Other People's Children" does a pretty good job of personalizing what it feels like for women who feel the child-bearing window of opportunity closing. It also explores how callous the world can feel to those women, and how much the world of parenthood is taken for granted by those who didn't struggle to enter it.

That said, this movie is missing something that would have made it really memorable. There's nothing wrong with it, but I see it fading into the background quickly, and I doubt I'll give it a second thought when I'm looking back at the movies I've seen this year. Virginie Efira gives a lovely performance (and reminded me at times so much of Stockard Channing), but her performance would be more memorable if the movie around her was stronger.

Grade: B.

This is a rather bland film. Everything goes relatively swimmingly for a long time and then, when things do get complicated, they are only ever so slightly complicated.

It feels like this is a distillation of the many films/stories in which a woman who desperately wants a baby, struggles to conceive in her late thirties. But in distilling all those other works, it lacks any unique flavour.

It doesn't feel like events are really happening to Rachel and Ali. It certainly doesn't seem like they really feel them. Things happen and they seem to shrug their shoulders and move on. Their lives just aren't interesting or stimulating enough for either them or us.

Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival

"Other People's Children" is a story about a childless woman forms a deep bond with her boyfriend's young daughter. This is director Rebecca Zlotowski fifth feature film and I have seen two of her previous works which are "Planetarium" and "An Easy Girl". Planetarium was really bad and An Easy Girl was pretty good. Here, Zlotowski provides good direction and wholesome scenarios despite having a predictable narrative. Various films about childless woman, romance and bonding had been explored before and for the most part, despite a few different approaches on the subject, it was mainly simple.

Many of the romance movements and motivations were basic and pretty standard for a typical French romance story. What makes the film still interesting was the direction, beautiful production and designs and a strong performance from the main lead actress Virginie Efira. Efira's performance was incredible as she captures every emotion from her character and has good chemistry with Roschdy Zem. The two lead performances helped to give a certain charm between the two characters and helped to make them pretty interesting. The child actor was also pretty good and adorable.

Besides a simple story, there were some moments that didn't do for me as some of the soundtrack choices were a little off-putting and some of the pacing could have used some work. With the main characters, there were side characters that felt a little out of place or underdeveloped that I wish could have been explored a little more. However, despite being predictable, I was still able to connect with the movie emotionally and still be invested with what is happening around them. I appreciate Rebecca Zlotowski approaching this story with a different point of view and I do look forward what she has to offer next.

Rating: B-